Dev Blog - Hidey Holes Poll

Dev Blog - Hidey Holes Poll

Hi all!

When we started with the Clue Scroll Rework project we knew we had to do something about the fact that emote clues required so much bank space. We saw lots of suggestions on the forums to just implement STASH (originally referred to as hidey holes) similar to Old School Runescape, however we wanted to be sure we'd considered all alternatives. After discussing various approaches, we feel that OSRS's approach of STASH (store-things-and-stuff-here) units actually does tick all the boxes for what we'd want to achieve.

This is our pitch for how we'd see them working in RuneScape:

The Pitch

STASH units will always be located near to emote clue coordinates. You will be able to fill these with the various costume and equipment you need to complete them, thus freeing up to 94 new spaces in your bank.

There will be varying levels of construction requirements on STASH units, with an appropriate amount of construction xp given on completion. You will still have to plan your journey to work out which items to bring with you and ensure you have the right construction materials.

For each emote clue you will have to search the nearby area for a good spot. This could be a rock, a tree or an existing crate.These will look identical to existing scenery. We may decide to add the occasional new rock or tree if there is nothing nearby already. All you'll need to do is right-click the scenery to convert it into a STASH unit. After a building animation you'll see the scenery looking virtually identical, except with the addition of a new painted graphic, effectively tagging the scenery identifying it as a STASH unit. See below for two examples, where we are just using a Zamorak symbol but we will create a new icon for treasure trails if and when we start implementing this for real.

Obviously there could be a large number of these locations scattered across the world, so we will implement an interface similar to OSRS allowing you to track which STASH units you have already discovered and filled in.

In addition to this, there will also be an achievement for building and filling all STASH units. Should you want to, you will also be able to retrieve your items afterwards.

Your feedback:

Before we put this to the next poll we would appreciate your input - does this satisfy all your concerns about protecting emote clues, without totally removing them? Please bear in mind that we may add more emote clues as part of the update, so let us know what you think about this system.

Our Next Steps:

On Monday we will open this up as an in-game poll. We will inclue a link to this dev blog so everyone has a chance to get more information than we can fit into the poll interface.

We would be looking for 75% in order for the poll to pass.

If this does not pass we will look at your feedback. If this design can be tweaked we will re-poll. Depending on the feedback we may try a different design and then re-poll again.

Final Poll Text:

As a headsup, here is what our poll will say next week:

We've considered a number of potential methods for how to make emote clues a smoother experience without removing their requirements, and have decided that STASH units (as detailed in our recent blog) are our best way forward. If this poll passes, that's what we'll do, else we'll poll one of our other solutions. Does this sound good?